by R. M. Olson
“Can we focus on the fact that we’re all going to die if we don’t bloody start paying attention to what we’re doing?” he snapped. “Lev, turn on your damn holoscreen and tell Jez and Tanya what table they need to rig next. Ivan, can you go help him? I’m going to pull up the general com on the ship and see if they’re saying anything about us.
He hit the com, glancing over at Lev quickly to make sure he was actually damn well paying attention for long enough to give Jez what she needed, and pulled up his hack.
A woman’s voice drifted over the com. “—don’t know. Boss said to keep an eye on them. Masha’s in there talking to him, but he’s worried about something.”
“Well,” came another voice, sounding amused, “from what I hear, the only thing he has to worry about is whether that tech kid is going to run off with one of the servers. I guess when Malvika walked in, they were—”
Tae closed his eyes, drew in a long breath, and blew it out again, ignoring Ysbel’s snickering.
“Well,” Ysbel said, “I guess it worked.”
“—something in the gambling hall.”
Tae sat up quickly, his heart beating slightly faster.
“Yeah, I don’t know what it is, but Fyodor said there’s something wrong with the games. Said to look into it.”
Tae tapped his com. “You hear that, Jez?” he asked in a low voice.
“Yep.” She didn’t sound particularly concerned.
“Listen,” he said, biting back his exasperation, mostly because there was no chance it would have even the slightest effect on the pilot. “If they’re getting suspicious about the games and they come in to check it out, you’ll be their number one suspect if anything goes wrong. Honestly, I think at this point half the damn mafia would kill you just for the satisfaction of it.”
“Well, guess they could give it a try,” said Jez philosophically.
Lev glanced up from his screen, his face grave, and for once actually focused. “We’re going to have to hurry this up,” he said quietly. “If they’re already catching on, we don’t have time to wait for the games we’ve set out. Give me a minute, I’m going to re-calculate this. Jez, Tanya, I want you two and Olya out of there in the next half-hour.”
“Well genius,” Jez drawled, but Tae could catch the slightest hint of worry in her voice. “That might not be a bad idea. Because from the looks of it, things might get pretty interesting in here in not very long.”
Tae glanced up, and for a moment his, Ivan’s, and Lev’s eyes all met.
“I think we’re running out of time,” Ivan said quietly. Lev nodded.
Tae glanced down at his com, frowning at the columns of figures. “Lev,” he said, “Send me the list as soon as you have it.”
Lev nodded and bent over his com, seeming, finally, to be focusing on the job at hand. But Tae couldn’t stop the worry tightening in his stomach.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
“JEZ.” TANYA’S VOICE was tight with strain, which wasn’t really surprising, since she’d basically looked like she was restraining herself with great difficulty from actually murdering Jez since they’d sat down at the damn table.
But the look on her face now was more worry than repressed homicide, and Jez frowned.
“What is it, then?” she asked in a low voice.
“We’re being watched, I think,” said Tanya. “You remember Lev said they were getting suspicious. Well, I think they’re getting more than suspicious right now.”
Jez glanced around quickly.
It took her a few moments to see what Tanya had already seen, and honestly, she’d probably not have seen it at all if Tanya hadn’t already warned her.
Then her stomach tightened.
Tanya was right. They were more than suspicious.
There were almost ten of Grigory’s boyeviki, and they were watching the room suspiciously, wandering along the edges of the room with the sort of nonchalance she’d seen far too often following her in dark alleys. They didn’t have their weapons drawn, but they were making no great effort to conceal the bulk of weapons under their jackets.
She took a quick breath, and grinned at Tanya. “Alright, I guess we’re extra careful now.”
“We’ve been extra careful this whole time,” Tanya said in a low voice. “I’m not sure that’s going to be enough.”
Jez glanced around the room again and tapped her com. “Tae,” she whispered. “Grigory’s sent his people in here. Just so you know. How many more games you need us to rig?”
There was a moment’s pause. “We’re close.” Tae’s voice was strained. “Lev?”
“Five more games, I think,” came Lev’s quiet voice, but she could hear the strain under his tone as well. “It won’t give us the numbers we want, but it will be close. Hopefully close enough.”
“Yeah.” She tapped the com off and glanced up at Tanya.
The woman looked worried.
“Alright,” said Jez, and she could feel herself grinning, because damn it, her muscles were already tight with anticipation, and she couldn’t keep her fingers still, and the heel of her boot was bumping gently against the leg of her chair and her whole body felt lighter and looser than it had just a few moments before. “Alright. Five more games, Tanya. We’ll see what we can do.”
Olya appeared beside her a moment later. “Aunty,” she said, glancing up at Jez. “What’s wrong?”
“What do you mean, kid?” she said, grabbing a handful of tokens.
Olya gave her a skeptical glance that didn’t completely hide the slight worry in her face. “You’re grinning, Aunty. That usually means something is wrong.”
Jez exchanged quick glances with Tanya, then bent down. “Hey, kid,” she whispered. “You’re smart. Listen, I think it might be a good idea if you headed back to your mama and Uncle Lev and Uncle Tae for a bit. We’re almost done here anyways, we’ll catch you up.”
Olya shook her head stubbornly. “No. I’m going to stay here. I’m really good at this, you said so.”
“You are, kid. Believe me, you’re going to be able to out-cheat your aunty soon. But look, there are only a couple tables left. Your mamochka can get those, and anyways, sounds like they need you back there. Apparently your Uncle Tae is running around kissing people when he’s supposed to be working, so figure you can go back and keep them on task?”
“Uncle Tae?” The look on Olya’s face was clearly skeptical now. “Because I thought usually it was you and Uncle—”
Tanya was looking faintly amused.
“Yeah, look, kid,” Jez cut in quickly, glaring at Tanya. “Point is, you should get back there.”
“Your aunty’s right,” said Tanya. “I don’t want you here, my heart. You’ve done a fabulous job, but I’d like you to go back now.”
Olya glanced between them, and there was fear behind the stubbornness in her eyes. “They’re going to catch you, aren’t they, mamochka?”
Tanya gave her a smile and a quick embrace. “I hope not, my heart. But they’re looking for us now, I think, and they are more likely to notice a child than they are to notice me. Can you do this for me, Olyeshka?”
Olya stared at her mamochka for a moment, then gave a small nod.
“Good,” said Tanya. “That’s my girl. You go, but stay out of the way of those people there.”
“Grigory’s people?” Olya whispered.
Tanya nodded.
“Alright,” said Olya in a small voice. “I will.” She paused a moment, and for just that moment there was something in her face that made Jez remember that really, the kid was only eight, and it wasn’t very long ago that she’d been broken out of prison, and since that time she’d hardly had more than a month together where something wasn’t threatening to kill her or her parents.
“Go on, kid,” Jez whispered. “Your mamochka and I will be fine. Go.”
Olya nodded again, then turned and disappeared into the crowd. A moment later, they saw her slip out the exit, and Jez felt her shoulders drop in
relief. She glanced up, and saw a matching relief on Tanya’s face.
“Lev,” she whispered into the com. “Olya’s on her way. Tanya and I will finish up.”
She looked up, and grinned at Tanya. “Alright. Five more tables. Next one is the one on the far right again.”
She pulled up her screen as Tanya slipped off. Tae had hacked the cameras in the room, and she had visuals, but every damn angle of the visuals included some image of one of Grigory’s boyeviki, scanning casually through the room. She looked up at the artificial vine in front of her.
Maybe she could actually get to like vines after all, if this one managed to keep her alive.
Tanya reappeared, but there was a worried frown on her face. “Jez,” she said quietly. “I don’t know how many more we’ll get away with.”
Jez glanced down at her screen again, and swiped to the list Tae had sent through. “Well,” she whispered back, “looks like we’ll have to get a few more done, or else there was no point in us coming here at all. Guess Tae’s buddy Ivan’s been looking through Grigory’s financials, and he can afford to lose a few of his plants, and we’re not quite there yet.”
“I know,” said Tanya in a low voice. “Believe me. But I’m not sure—”
She stiffened suddenly, and Jez followed her gaze.
Ice formed in her stomach, and a tingle that might have been anticipation, or might have been fear, or maybe a little bit of both, spread up her arms and through her fingers.
Three of the boyeviki were making their casual way over towards the spreading artificial vine in the corner, and the table behind it.
She glanced in the other direction. Another man and a woman were strolling in their direction.
“Lev,” Tanya whispered into her com. “I think they’re onto us.”
“You need to come in,” said Lev instantly, his voice sharp with worry. “We’ll figure out another way, just get back here.”
“Not sure that’s an option anymore,” Jez muttered. “Figure the best thing for you all to do is get the hell out of the way, because once they catch us—”
“Jez Solokov.”
She jerked her head up.
Fyodor stood there. He had a broad smile on his face, but it wasn’t at all pleasant.
“Hey, you bastard,” she said with an easy grin, leaning back in her chair. “Got bored and decided to come find me? Hell, if you’re that desperate, wouldn’t mind going a round with you.”
From the corner of her eye, she saw Tanya move slightly, her motion so subtle that you might not have caught it if you weren’t watching.
Jez put her hands behind her head leisurely, making her movements big enough to keep Fyodor’s attention, and gave the woman standing beside him an irreverent wink. “Beginners luck,” she said in a loud whisper. “Won every damn credit off him last time we played.”
Fyodor’s face had gone cold. “You’re a cheater, Jez,” he said. “A cheat and a useless drunk and a disrespectful nobody. But you’re not stupid. And nor am I.”
“Could have fooled me,” she drawled.
Tanya had slipped out of her chair, and was straightening slowly. Jez had seen her move, and the woman was damn fast, and sure, there were about six of them now, but she was almost close enough to—
Tanya’s posture stiffened, ever so slightly.
And then Jez noticed the barrel of the heat gun, poking through the leaves of the vine. The muzzle followed Tanya’s head in a lazy way that made it clear the gun was in the hands of someone who knew very, very well how to use it.
Fyodor turned and followed Jez’s gaze. Then he turned back to her, and the smile on his face this time made something cold stir in her chest.
“At least, I used to think you weren’t stupid,” he said. “But a little over-confident? I think perhaps you’ve always been that.” He pulled his own heat pistol from his jacket pocket, just long enough to show it to her. “Go ahead and put your hands on the table, Jez. Your friend here too.”
She caught Tanya’s eye, and the moment she saw her face, she knew that it was over.
“Yeah,” Jez said, finally, and she was somehow still grinning, even though she felt like the bottom had dropped out of her stomach and left nothing but a gaping hole. She put her hands on the table, and slowly, Tanya sat down and did the same. Fyodor gestured, and two of the boyeviki patted them both down quickly. They ended up with a pile on the table of five heat pistols, two knives, a garrotte-wire, and three small cylindrical buttons that Jez recognized instantly as Ysbel’s explosives.
“Well,” said Fyodor. “You came very well armed to a gambling game.”
“Yeah, well looks like it wasn’t a bad idea, seeing as six of you damn bastards happen to be holding heat-guns on us,” Jez shot back.
Fyodor gestured with the muzzle of the gun in his pocket. “Come on, Solokov. Up you come. I think you’ve played long enough for the evening.”
She stood, but her legs were shaky, and her hip bumped the table hard enough to make her wince. “What you going to do with us, enforce the damn curfew?” She was still grinning, recklessly, because hell, what did she even have to lose at this point?
Fyodor shook his head gently. “No, Jez. Nothing like that. You’re just going back to your rooms, and you’re going to wait the rest of the evening out with your friend. That’s all.”
Somehow she had the feeling that that wasn’t all, but she shot him a cocky wink anyways. “Hey now, some of us can hold our tokens and our liquor, you know. Don’t need to worry about me.”
He didn’t answer, just gestured again with the gun in his jacket pocket. “Walk nice and easy,” he said in her ear as they started forward. “No point in frightening the other guests.”
And for a moment she almost shouted, almost tried to break away, even though the way his gun was pointed she’d probably just end up with a smoking hole burned through the middle of her face, but—
She cut her eyes around frantically for just a moment. She could still screw this thing up for Grigory, probably, and Lev and the others might be able to—
“I know what you’re thinking,” he murmured. “You forget. You’re on a ship that’s owned by Grigory Korzhekov. Remember your friend’s kids, the girl and the boy? It’s not like they could hide, you know, because where are they going to hide?”
She held her breath for a moment, adrenalin rattling through her body so strongly that her hands were shaking with it.
Then, at last, she forced her too-tight muscles to relax, forced her legs to take one step after another, her movements, somehow, normal. Anyone who was damn well paying attention would be able to catch it, would be able to see that she and Tanya weren’t walking out of here of their own damn volition, but this was a gambling hall, and everyone’s attention was caught and held by the tokens at their tables.
And then they were out of the hall, and out of the crowd, and Fyodor drew his gun from his pocket and gestured.
A moment later her hands were bound tightly behind her back. When she cut her eyes to one side, she saw they’d done the same to Tanya.
At least they’d got Olya out. That was one thing, anyways.
Fyodor marched them down the corridor, away from the entrance to Grigory’s ship, and into a lift. She probably should have realized what was happening, but it wasn’t until he shoved her out onto another corridor, stretching away from her with doors set at regular intervals on either side, that she realized what she probably should have guessed from the beginning.
They were still on the side of the damn blast doors that had the explosive.
“That’s your room at the end,” Fyodor said, a small smile on his face. “You’re lucky, really. If it had been me, you’d have come back onto Grigory’s ship, and we would have talked to you for a while first. But there’s too much riding on this, and torturing you to death would take time and people we don’t have to spare. So you get nice and quick.” He gestured her forward again, and, because she didn’t actually have a choice,
she went.
“I’d shoot you, but I’m not sure what exactly you’ve done down there,” he continued as they walked. “Be a shame to kill you and then realize you had some information I needed. But this should do nicely anyways, thanks to your friend Ysbel. I’ve seen her work. I’m sure it will be so quick you won’t feel a thing.” He stopped them in front of the door at the end of the hall.
“See you gave us the nicest room,” Jez said, with an attempt at a grin over her shoulder. “Sure you’re not just jealous of my luck at tokens?”
“No,” he said gently, as one of the boyeviki stepped in front of them and pulled the door open. “It’s not that, Solokov. It’s only that we needed a bigger room because there were so many of you.”
Her stomach barely had time to drop at his words before the door swung open, and her eyes confirmed what her brain had just begun to guess.
The room wasn’t empty.
Beside her, Tanya drew in a quick breath.
Olya sat on the bed, her arms tied tightly behind her back, Misko beside her. And beside them, Ysbel.
A quick glance around showed her Tae and Lev and Ivan against the opposite wall.
“On the bright side, you won’t be dying alone,” said Fyodor, pushing her through the door. She stumbled inside, too cold with shock to think of resisting.
Fyodor shot her one last smile, then closed the door, and the lock clicking into place sounded very, very loud in the silence.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
JEZ CLOSED HER eyes for a moment, fighting the panic that always seemed to well up inside her when she was locked in, the terrified, helpless panic that she couldn’t seem to stop and couldn’t seem to escape, that was going to actually drown her one of these days—
“Hey. Jez,” said Lev, and somehow his familiar, wry voice cut through the panic enough that she could actually draw a breath, and the dizziness subsided slightly. She took a deep, steadying breath and opened her eyes.
They were all alive, thank the damn Lady, and a moment of frantic relief washed over her, but her heart was still galloping in panic, her breathing coming too quickly.
